Zhu opened the tournament by beating Macau's Ying Long 21-12, 21-11 after which she eliminated Malaysia's seventh seed Wong Mew Choo 21-11, 21-14.

Then came her surprisingly easy 21-11, 21-11 victory over world number one Zhou. Next on her list of victims was Wang Lin, who put up a struggle in the semi-finals before going down 14-21, 21-12, 21-9.

All England champion Tine Rasmussen, of Denmark, also failed to make a major impact on the tournament.

Rasmussen, the third seed, had a promising start with a 22-24, 21-9, 21-14 victory against unseeded Chinese entry Liu Jie.

However, she then suffered a shock exit at the hands of Malaysian Julia Wong Pei Xian, who scored a 22-20, 10-21, 21-10 victory over the experienced Dane.

Other high-profile names to lose early were Germany's eighth-seeded Xu Huaiwen and France's Pi Hongya, the sixth seed.

Xu beat South Korea's Hwang Hye-youn in the first round 21-5, 21-19 but then fell to China's Wang Lin 21-17, 21-15.

Pi didn't even manage to get out of the first round, losing to Wang Chen 17-21, 21-13, 21-12.

India's rising star Saina Nehwal also failed to win a match. She went down to fifth-seeded Zhu Lin but not before taking her to three games in a thrilling 21-6, 12-21, 21-19 defeat.

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